A Lesson In God’s Forgiveness

Psalm 32:1-5

A psalm of David.

1Oh, what joy for those

whose rebellion is forgiven,

whose sin is put out of sight!

2Yes, what joy for those

whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,

whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

3When I refused to confess my sin,

I was weak and miserable,

and I groaned all day long.

4Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.

My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

Interlude

5Finally, I confessed all my sins to you

and stopped trying to hide them.

I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”

And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

Interlude

You may recall the story: King sees woman. King takes woman. King has woman’s husband killed. This plot could have been played out in any ancient culture, but this was Israel, where the king answered to a higher authority.

When the prophet Nathan charged David with his sin of adultery and murder, David openly confessed his sin, writing the deeply personal Psalm 51. Talk about airing your dirty laundry! David’s mea culpa became a part of the nation’s hymnbook, so that future generations could read of David’s repentance and confession.

Psalm 32 seems to be the sequel to Psalm 51. After David confesses his sin, he receives God’s forgiveness. In Psalm 51 David says that he wants to teach God’s ways to other sinners, leading them to repentance, and in Psalm 32 David is teaching God’s forgiveness to other sinners.

When Martin Luther was asked which psalm was the best psalm, he replied, “The psalms of Paul.” His questioners knew that the apostle Paul didn’t write any of the psalms, so they asked him what he meant. He answered that he was referring to Psalms 32, 51, 130, and 143. “They all teach,” Luther said, “that the forgiveness of sin comes, without the law and without works, to the man who believes. This is just what Paul says, and that is why I call them the psalms of Paul.”

Like David, confess your sins to God, and experience the joy of his forgiveness.

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin—not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

HORATIO G. SPAFFORD

A Word on Words

Three different Hebrew words for sin are used in verses 1 and 2, along with different phrases for forgiveness, underscoring the completeness of God’s forgiveness.

Bible Networking

Check out how Paul used these verses in Romans 4:6-8. Do you think John had verse 5 in mind when he wrote 1 John 1:9?